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Galesauridae, along with the family Thrinaxodontidae, and the great infraorder, Eucynodontia - which includes the mammals, make up the unranked taxon called Epicynodontia. They appeared in the very latest Permian period, just a million years or even a thousand years before the greatest extinction of all time, the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Galesaurids are the most primitive of the Epicynodonts. They may have resembled the basal cynodonts, such as the procynosuchids and may have descended from a procynosuchid-like or less like ancestor, but the Galesaurids are more advanced than the basal cynodonts. It is clear that, like many other Epicynodonts, many Galesaurids have complete secondary palate that allows them to swallow food while breathing, and the dentary bone was enlarged than its ancestors. Their temporal fenestrae are much larger than the procynosuchids, but not as large as more advanced epicynodonts. Their snouts are broader, rather than tall, and they may have walked erect, legs beneath the body like most other cynodonts. Their fossils were found almost worldwide, and they are one of the survivors of the Permian-Triassic extinction event, but they became extinct in the Middle Triassic epoch, as with the Therocephalians. One of the most notable genera of the family, Galesauridae, is Galesaurus.
